Amberjack Slip On: Travel Companion

March 23, 2025March 23, 2025 by 100wears

Price: $189

Why Buy?

The Amberjack Slip On offers the quintessential travel shoe for work, offering comfort, easy slip on/off, and a professional design.

Why Avoid?

The Amberjack Slip On isn’t quite as versatile as some of their other designs, and fits tight.

Specs

Model	The Slip On
Height	Low
Size	12 Standard (12.5 Would Fit Better)
Weight	508 g / 1 lb 1.9 oz
Materials	Leather / PU / TPU
Construction	Cemented
Country of Origin	Portugal

History

While I wouldn’t say I was early to Amberjack, they certainly have grown since I got my first pair. Originally offering just two choices – the Original and the Chelsea – they now have 7 distinct lines. Plus a modification line called the Tux.

Where their first forays were into more winter-ready options like boots, more recently they’ve been launching items that are a bit more suitable for warm weather. Offering designs that meet their brand ethos of being formal enough for a business trip, but also being a bit more casual.

By the way, I won’t rehash their history here, but if this is the first Amberjack review you’re reading, check out the full history here.

Take, for example, this slip on.

Getting rid of the more casual adornments on their Loafer model, they make no bones about the target audience. Their website even has a guy in wool pants jumping over a park bench.

However, does the Amberjack Slip On stand up to the test? Let’s dive in and find out.

Disclaimer: Amberjack sent this pair of shoes for review purposes, however this is not a sponsored review. Amberjack was not able to see anything written before it went live.

Looks

Upper

The Amberjack Slip On is designed to be minimalistic, and the upper is where you can find it.

Most of the upper is made of a single primary color. I got these in the Chestnut leather, which I think is probably going to be the most popular. If that’s not your style, they also make black, coffee, and tan in leather and brown or grey in suede. The Chestnut is a medium brown that should be extremely versatile – especially given the warm weather goals of the Slip On.

The Slip On is made of primarily four leather panels. The apron (the part on top of the toes), the toe guard, and two panels around the midfoot and heel. In addition, there is a panel around the opening for additional durability, and a pull-on loop in the back.

Despite the efforts towards minimalism, there are two areas of design that you notice if you take a close look. First, the Amberjack logo is pressed near the top of the apron. Additionally, if you look really closely, you’ll find decorative patterning right on the inside of the arch.

Finishing off the upper, two elastic panels help keep the shoe in place while also making sure it opens wide enough to fit your foot in.

Mid- and Outsole

For the Slip On, Amberjack used their standard midsole/outsole combo unit. It’s what the whole shoe is designed around, so there wouldn’t be any reason not to.

Attached as a single-piece cup sole the sole unit does a great job at looking formal enough to wear with slacks and a jacket while avoiding that fake-welt look that really cheap shoes have. Around the top of the cup sole, a tan-colored piece pays homage to a welt. It also features “Amberjack” around back.

Moving further down, a brown – slightly darker than the upper – makes up the majority of the midsole. This is the piece that pulls off one of my favorite party tricks. While the cup sole is designed to allow a large wedge of foam inside, it has cut outs that from a few feet away make it look like a more traditional heeled pair of shoes.

This design goes a long way in making sure these shoes actually work in a business environment and avoid that sort of “dress shoe glued to a sneaker outsole” look.

Summary

The Amberjack Slip On offers a minimalistic option for those who want the comfort that Amberjack is known for. While you do trade some formality of their traditional designs for this lace-less version, the tradeoff to be able to quickly slip them on and off (like when you’re at an airport) will be worth it for a lot of people.

I would prefer if there was not a loop on the back, though with this slip on design it does play a more functional role.

For styling these, I would definitely skew towards business attire. Trousers – cotton or wool – and a pressed dress shirt are the go-to. If you want something a bit more casual, you might want to consider the loafer or the Chelsea.

Fit & Comfort

Fit

Amberjack suggest going true to size for the Slip On, but I would definitely consider going a half size up from your typical Amberjack/Brannock size. At least if you don’t have an extremely low in step.

In order to secure a snug fit, the in step is cut very low. Or, to put it another way, the area on top of your foot is very low. In fact, this pair is probably the lowest-volume pair of footwear I’ve ever tried. It looks like I’m not the only one – of the top 5 reviews on their website at time of writing, three suggest going up a size.

Still, the instep is low enough that if you do go up a half size, they should still fit you very well.

I got these in my typical size 12, though I wish I had sized up to a 12.5. Note: the Chelsea is built on the same last in a 12.5, so I was able to compare sizing.

If you do mis-size, exchanges are free. If none of them fit, returns are as well.

Comfort

Amberjack is known for their comfort and the Slip On (assuming you get the right size) is no different. The big benefit is the style of construction which allows for a big chunky insole/midsole unit. At around a half inch thick under your heel, this offers a ton of squish underfoot.

The upper leather is also incredibly soft. Not quite sneaker soft, but much softer than most dress shoe leathers out there.

Combined, the Amberjack Slip On is an easy shoe to wear all day.

Materials & Construction

Materials

The upper of the Amberjack Slip On is made of full grain leather. Like their other pairs in, they come out of the box feeling like a coated leather, but that feeling goes away after a few wears. The leather they chose is on the thinner side, however that is the trade off made to ensure it’s soft and pliable.

Inside that leather, a soft sheepskin lining covers the entire interior. Back near your heel, a reversed panel offers a bit of grip. Speaking of the heel, inside there is a soft heel counter and a small amount of foam right at your Achilles. The toe box on the Slip On is unstructured, though the leather and lining are supportive enough I don’t think the toe box will collapse.

Underfoot, an insole made of a memory foam like material offers great comfort. It is removeable if you want to, but I don’t know why you would.

Rounding off the entire package is an outsole made of two different densities of TPU, or thermoplastic polyurethane. TPU is one of those “do it all” materials. It covers everything from hard boot outsoles to Adidas’ boost midsoles.

The dark brown sections under the heel and at the edges of the forefoot is a bit harder and should offer good durability. The tan color near the ball of your foot is a bit softer, offering more squish.

Construction

The Amberjack Slip On is made using cemented construction. This is the most common way of making footwear, by far, and involves sewing the upper and then gluing it directly to the outsole.

For positives, this tyle of construction offers great water resistance and – why Amberjack probably chose it – the most flexibility of any style of construction. As for drawbacks, cemented shoes are basically impossible to resole. Once the outsole is worn out, so is the shoe.

It’s also worth pointing out where the shoe is made. Unlike most footwear at this price point, Amberjack is made in Portugal. I know most people are here for the shoes and not a lecture on working conditions, but I have to give credit to Amberjack for showing the conditions of their factory. You can see a video on their website, and there are online publications that discuss the (good) working conditions there.

Doing this increases costs, but it’s a good think to be aware of as you’re shopping for footwear.

Ease of Care

For care, the Amberjack Slip On should be an easy shoe to take care of.

From the brand themselves, they do have a care routine they suggest you follow.

First, they suggest using a shoe horn. This is always a good idea, but the shoe’s soft materials make it especially valuable with this pair. Shoe horns are incredibly affordable. You probably have a few kicking around already, but if not you, you can get them on Amazon for just a few bucks.

Next, Amberjack notes that it’s good to condition the leather. They suggest when the leather gets “dull or wrinkled.” In practice, that probably means every 3-4 months. However, with this thinner and softer leather, it’ll absorb conditioner really fast. I’d suggest using a little bit less than you typically would on other pairs.

Ambjerack offers a shoe care kit with conditioner and a bunch of other stuff for $55. That being said, I’d personally recommend just getting a bottle of Bick 4. It does a great job conditioning and will save you quite a bit of money.

While the brand themselves don’t mention it, I would recommend a pair of shoe trees. This softer leather is prone to creasing, and the shoe trees will do a good job preventing them from setting. Any wooden pair from Amazon will be fine.

Pricing & Value

Like their other shoes, the Amberjack Slip On comes in at a price of $189. Included in this price is free returns and exchanges, along with a 2 year warranty for construction related issues.

As always with the dress-focused Amberjacks, direct comparisons are not easy to find. They are not dress shoes in a traditional sense, but they are not really hybrids in a way most people understand. Your comparisons are probably going to primarily be the Cole Haan Zerogrand line. These are closer to hybrids, and run between $180-$300.

Wrap Up

The Amberjack Slip On might be the closest thing the brand makes to the original vision – a comfortable shoe for the guy who is traveling for work. With easy slip-on/slip-off capabilities it truly makes this a road warrior.

If you are looking for a pair, you should consider a few things. First, the sizing does run a bit small, even compared to other Amberjack models. Second, much of what I note here is based on this specific colorway. A pair in grey suede will play very differently with wool trousers when compared to this dark brown leather option.